Astros 5, Red Sox 4: Victory not in the stars for the Red Sox

Sometimes, dear Brutus, the fault does lay in your stars, and for a second consecutive postseason, Boston was betrayed by its best players.

By Tim Britton / @TimBritton

BOSTON — The Red Sox, it appeared, had weathered the storm.

On a rainy Monday at Fenway, the Sox had rebounded from another early deficit. They had quieted an Astros offense that had seemed unstoppable. And they had crossed the murky waters of the middle innings to get to safe harbor — six outs away from a winner-take-all Game Five back in Houston. And then Boston’s stars — its two stalwarts throughout the season — couldn’t close the deal.

Against Chris Sale and Craig Kimbrel, Houston scored twice in the eighth and once in the ninth to deliver a late knockout blow and defeat the Red Sox, 5-4, in Game Four of the American League Division Series at Fenway Park. The Astros have advanced to the ALCS for the first time in club history, winning the series 3-1.

Sometimes, dear Brutus, the fault does lay in your stars, and for a second consecutive postseason, Boston was betrayed by its best players. In last year’s Division Series sweep to the Indians, it was a vanishing act by the league’s best offense and disastrous starts from Rick Porcello and David Price. This year, it was a one-run lead in the eighth that a tiring Sale and a fresh Kimbrel couldn’t hold.

“I didn’t get it done,” said Sale, who was charged with the tying and go-ahead runs in the eighth.

“I wasn’t quite good enough today,” said Kimbrel, who allowed that go-ahead run to score after inheriting it on first with two outs.

“Probably one of the toughest losses I’ve had in my career so far,” said Xander Bogaerts, who snapped out of a series-long funk with a game-tying opposite-field home run in the first, “because we were so close to doing something special.”

“We just weren’t good enough. They beat us,” Dustin Pedroia said. “They played better than we did at the right time. That’s why they’re moving on.”

All series, the Red Sox had lamented the poor starts that had given them little chance in Houston and forced them to rally in Sunday’s Game Three. Boston’s biggest advantage in the series — a bullpen fortified by David Price — mattered little if it never had a lead to protect. Price showed how much the calculus changed on Sunday when ahead.

But Monday didn’t play like that, as Boston was able to paper over its flaws. Porcello pitched passably — yes, two runs in three innings counts for passable for the Red Sox in the postseason these days — and Sale cruised through the middle innings.

The Sox arrived at the eighth in ideal position, up a run and with both Addison Reed and Kimbrel available in the pen.

“I felt like we were in a good position,” said manager John Farrell, who had been ejected six innings earlier arguing with home-plate umpire Mark Wegner. “We had our two best pitchers to close things out and get the final six outs.”

Boston opted first to stick with Sale, even as he had thrown 65 pitches in the previous four frames, even as the Astros had pieced together better at-bats against him in the seventh, even as Farrell had said pregame that Kimbrel would be available for six outs if needed.

“I felt strong,” said Sale. “I felt fine. I just made a bad pitch.”

The move backfired immediately, when Alex Bregman launched that bad pitch — a changeup — over the Green Monster for his second homer off Sale in the series. With Kimbrel warm, Sale remained in the game, eventually allowing a soft single to Evan Gattis.

Kimbrel entered, having stranded 12 of the 13 runners he’d inherited this season.

“Obviously you never want to come out, but handing it over to him makes it a little easier,” Sale said.

But the closer, in his first high-leverage postseason appearance since 2013 with the Braves, lacked the command that had distinguished his lights-out 2017 from his pedestrian 2016. A wild pitch moved the go-ahead run to second, a walk put another man on. And Josh Reddick, the former Red Sox right fielder, won an eight-pitch war with a single through the hole at short on a 99 mph 3-2 fastball.

Kimbrel allowed another run in the ninth on pinch-hitter Carlos Beltran’s double off the Monster — and that one would come back to bite Boston as well. His ineffectiveness made the decision to stick with Sale in the eighth less controversial in retrospect; neither pitcher turned out to be an ideal option.

“Anytime you’re knocked out, you always want to go back and say, ‘What can I do?’ I felt like the ballclub fought hard,” Kimbrel said. “In games like this, that’s all you can really ask for.”

That fight extended, albeit briefly, into the ninth. An offense that had been silent since Andrew Benintendi greeted reliever Justin Verlander with a go-ahead homer in the fifth revived when Rafael Devers smoked a Ken Giles 0-2 slider off the Monster in left-center, then circled the bases when it caromed back toward right-center field for an inside-the-park homer.

It was to be a small reprieve. Giles calmed down to get a groundout from Christian Vazquez, a strikeout of Jackie Bradley, Jr. and a groundout from Dustin Pedroia.

“You work so hard together and go through so much,” Pedroia said. “To come up short, it hurts.”

Monday was emblematic of the series as a whole. Save for David Price and Hanley Ramirez, Boston received little from its stars. Houston received excellent starts from Verlander and Dallas Keuchel and a string of good at-bats from its top of the order.

“We just weren’t good enough. They beat us,” Pedroia said. “They played better than we did at the right time. That’s why they’re moving on.”

“You go 100 miles an hour, and then all of a sudden it feels like you face-plant in a wall when the season’s over,” Farrell said. “We had a number of challenges thrown our way, but as a team, they stuck together. They care for one another and they fully competed right to the end.”

Tim Britton writes for the Providence Journal of GateHouse Media.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.